A sorry-looking Addicks side were swept aside with ease and the only surprise was that Royals did not score more than two goals as they were in control from start to finish.

And Little declared: “That is the best we’ve played all season. It was better than the 3-1 win over Tottenham last weekend when Spurs were in control for the first 25 minutes.

“But on Saturday we started very well and carried it on.

“You always expect a team to have a 15-minute spell, but that didn’t happen. It was good all-round from every player.

“We went into it thinking it was going to be a really tough game with them changing their manager.

“But we had some good chances and it reminded me of last season when we were dominating, creating openings and we could have been 3-0 up at half-time.”

Little, who was a key member of the Royals squad that won the Championship last season with a record-breaking 106 points, added: “I had a volley which went wide. It would have been nice to get my first Premiership goal, but that will have to wait.”

Reading have now won two successive matches to put behind them their five-match losing streak and Little has called for his team-mates to show a similar mentality at Fulham next week.

He added: “We can never be complacent. We saw last month where we thought we were going well and then we never knew where our next win was going to come from.

“We knew this was a big week for us with the two home games. It’s a great win for us and now we’re on a run and looking to get a third at Fulham on Saturday.”

Reading have accumulated 19 points with a third of the season gone.

In previous seasons 40 points has been the accepted target for Premiership survival.

Little, though, is refusing to get carried away, adding: “You’re never sure how many points you’ll need to avoid relegation.

“I personally think it will be less than 38, but you just keep going and trying to get as many wins as we can.

“In the Premiership three points are like gold dust.

“Sometimes draws don’t help you so you can sacrifice a few of them for defeats if you are winning games.

“A few weeks ago we could have gone down to 17th but now we have two wins, we’re in the top half and everything seems fine again.”